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Tortured Culture

EDITOR’S NOTE:It would not be so bizarre to say that names carry a lot more value than we may ever think. One might think that names are just an end product of conjoining of letters which personalizes someone, something or an event. Whilst this could be true, yet, names go beyond just letters. Its a kind of cocoon of force that supernaturally impacts on a person’s character and life in general and therefore should be paid attention to because our name is indeed our power! Here’s a beautiful piece cooked from the rich minds of two patriotic individuals who have shown concern towards our dying culture where the true value of names are most often disregarded.

When names were given
They were golds drawn from oven
Prepared by paternal inner parlance
Tendered to religious heads to pronounce

Taiwo, Chidinma, Aliyu and others
Answered to them all without stress
Adeleke, Chukwuka, Abdul-Gafar
Were the style of writing; even from afar

Today’s writing of names have fallen
To erosion of knowledge called foreign
Some, choked theirs with walls of nicks
Now, Hardeykunley, Chydymmer, and others

Shall we be ignorant till our names fade?
Then, we are forgetful of names been sacred

Years ago, we were given names, “named in full” by our parents. Today, we have renamed ourselves with twisted nomenclature. The power of a name is so strong we are blind to it, check Jesus Christ. The fear in a name can cause panic, check Samson and Abacha!

This is the lamentation of order, the extinction of real African names. Nicknames and pseudo names are the latest fad. Our real names have either been cooked, fried or grilled such that there’s no semblance. To the likes of Don Jazzy, Wizkid, D’banj etc, how many of us know their real names?

World renowned leaders, actors and eminent personalities are known by their names, not nicknames- Jesus Christ, Barack Obama, Mohammed Ali, Lionel Messi, Obafemi Awolowo, Nelson Mandela, the list is endless. Horlolardey, Horluwaphemmy may give us a niche but our real names give us the identity.

Its safe to have nicknames like us but not at the detriment of the real names. We may be Awesome EmmyG and Jamesconco but, WE ARE: ODUNTAN EMMANUEL AKINWUNMI and JAMES ADEMUYIWA IREDELE, respectively.

In all, we are ignorantly dropping and pouring our quota in the flood that is eroding our culture in our presence.

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31 thoughts on “Tortured Culture”

I love my names . Grateful to my parent for naming me like so. My name is powerful , my name is a blessing. I might have nicknames but my name remains my name. I am proud of my name. My name, my heritage…
Thanks i enjoyed reading

amity4, thanks for that contributing comment of yours. If we all can accept that our name is our heritage then, we should be able to eradicate this menace of westernizing under mediocrity out culturally given names.

I love this piece, though I never condemn those who re-write their names in the name of westernisation but I never had the feelings of rewriting my name in the name of westernisation. Besides, I get more confort when people call me Amoo which my traditional name than Yusuf which I bear in the name of the religion.

When one re-writes their name from Ademola to something like “Hardeymorlarh” as we most often see, it renders the real name meaningless and debased in the name of some kind of queer style? I won’t even call that westernisation. I just can’t subscribe to it. We should all embrace to our real names. Its comforting..

Bro, Bada Amoo, I really appreciate your presence here. if you can still remember the likes of the publishers and writers of yore who made their African names as their Ambience. To mention litlle, Ngugi Wationgo, Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, they are all know with their names. Thanks for reading

My name is Theresa. I have always believed that it means favour. Some fella informed me a few years ago that it means harvester.
That’s cool too because I am a harvester of good things and the mercy of God covers my failings and the bad seeds I may have sown.

See, thank God you realized that in the light of the day. Names are so powerful, and I believe it has been working for you @ Theresa. Mine is Iredele, (Goodness comes home). While I was still going to market with my mother as far back as 8-10years ago, when ever I came back from school to join her, she’ll always testify that, she has not been selling enough but, when I came around sales changed. So, let’s see large importance in our names. Thanks for reading

My Name is Newton Samson Adegboyega. And I wondered why Samson was mentioned with Abacha. I haven’t eaten apple yet nau. And it took more than a mere fruit to bring Samson down. Biko Editor I can sue for defamation o.

whao! Am impressed by this write up. Ones name is very paramount that when soiled will be difficult to correct. Therefore, one has to be careful with the way he/she twist their names. As for me, i love my name, very unique

Hmmm… As much as the authors’ point is appreciatively taken, their premise has alighted them in a midden of wrong conclusion: Jesus Christ is a greco-roman transliteration of the ORIGINAL Yahshua Ha Mashiach. Much as King Nebo decided to ignobly rename the three teflon-dons in the fiery furnace.
Appellations do not a great nation beget…. Lest we forget. It is the dynamism of culture that directs self and identity. One facetiously challenges the authors to chirp a meaningful POV via Twitter using their full names in a sentence cognizant of letter limitations.
Wizkid, Woozykid or Worsted. It really shouldn’t matter. At least the authors are aware of him and others in a public place who choose to be in-ur-face.
Did you hear of the one who decided to alter his name to ABRAHAM JESUS MOHAMMED TRUMP OBAMA JACKSON? He still hasn’t set off to a new land of universal salvation in stupendous wealth of pioneering universal acclaim with a mesmerizing song and dance to his new vision of self…. A ROSE by whatever name….

Thanks for your very informative contribution Mr Dare. Talking about dynamism of culture, agreed! It allows for some kind of alterations and variables which accommodates people of different ideologies and beliefs. Culture evolves and with evolution brings some more change. This is allowed. Yet it does not affect our identity because our culture remains our identity. Jesus which also means yeshua in Hebrew does not water the meaning behind Jesus. What i conceived from the mind of the writers is not necessarily calling one’s self the translation of their name in the form of another. If it were so, it would be more pardonable and attractive. It’s giving to nicknames or making what I would like to call a “caricature” of oneself in a bid to portray/reflect what you want the society to perceive you as in the name of westernization, so much so that one’s real name goes into extinction. Whilst the entertainment industry and likewise the media allows for this for convenience, A real name stands the test of time and should not be subdued even if one chooses to go by something else as society demands…

Loling @ Samson. And also remember it only takes women subtlety to bring down Samson back then, and we heard that it was set of whores that fed Abacha with the life terminating apple that brought end to direct autocracy in Nigeria. As you can see, both died through woman/women. Well, I appreciate the fact that, you are so proud of your name. Thanks for reading.

Hmm… Adeoye Dennis Falade; I can’t imagine being named otherwise…
Removed the A and use Deoye instead because it makes it two syllables- I’m lazy like that.
Dennis was the name I picked for baptism. My dad’s was Desmond Adewale so I wanted to keep the D.A. Initials. Seemed cool…
However, I get to use Spencer more; my uncles called me that because I was a clumsy nerdy goof when little – after Frank Spencer.
My point is names are symbolic. Each of the above mentioned names are symbolic, watering them down makes for anything but.

Haha! Interesting comment. I can also relate to the name confusion as I’d gone through series of phases when I’d used different names too. Not that they were not my name, they were but in the end I figured that one may have or be called different names but none surpasses your first name given to you at birth. Indeed, names are quite symbolic and one must be careful replacing or interchanging them.

D Rock, I really appreciate your view and the enlightenment. The point here is, as long as your name can be spelt well and accepted be it cultural names or the ones had due to religion, it shouldn’t be tampered with a style of spelling that will now make it lose its originality. You’ve also cleared the point yourself, you said culture affect the way we call Jesus Christ today but, will this be okay when written like this: “Jehzurs Chryste”? That’s the point the authors are proving. As we all know that, the Arabic spelling of Abraham is Ibrahim, that’s where inter culture comes in. And sometimes the epithet of some people’s name dominates their real name e.g. Cynthia is an epithet of a goddess of moon in Greece. That’s just the authors stand. Thanks for coming around.

This article just reminds me how I answered and still answer unnecessary questions whenever my name is said or called out. Where are you from? Why is your middle name German, Do you have 2 nationalities, and the last surname was always murdered by teachers , friends alike. I even got tired so I had to shorten it. Most times people thought, the shortened name was my nick name. But sometimes I enjoyed the attention the name brought other times I am like WTH move on people its just a name. I had to add my native name later on in life for easy access to get certain favouritism. I have a problem I am so in love with my name that I doubt I will change it even if I get married, untill then though.
What is this name wait for it…….

Sally Bonn-Ohiaeriaku. Where do y’all think I am from. Let me help
Sally is English
Bonn is German&
Ohiaeriaku is…….
nice article from the writers and as for Nonye God bless the day you retweeted me & got my attention. I am a fan, follower, and subscribed reader of this blog.

Hahaha! Interesting. And oh I am in love with your name too. Something about the “sally” and the “bonn”. Unique! I can absolutely relate, going by my different names chinonye (birth name), Janefrancess (Baptismal name) and Julia (Confirmation name) at different stages of my life.I was fascinated by all the names especially Julia which means “Youthful”. In the end i put an end to the fun with the names and decided to stick with my first name which I absolutely love.

I love how the writers took us back to our roots once again with their beautiful piece. Thanks so much for being a part of us, and I hope you come around more often 🙂

I’ve come to realise that we (I believe I’m speaking for the Josephs now) often have lots of issues like the Joe of yore had with that libido-oozing Potiphar’s babe, among other things; but he who can resist the temptation eventually gets the promise: The Lord Will Increase. That’s what the name means. Unfortunately most Josephs in this era are bazookas; we fire away, at will!